Third violation. Well, IC System just nailed their a$$ to the wall by sending me another demand for payment. Their 30 days to validate is officially up in 48 hours and as they violated the FDCPA act by resuming collection activity, it looks as if the ball is in my court. How should I proceed now? Should I send a 2nd validation letter or call them on thier violations or both? Please advise!
Andrew- Was this collection within the first 30 days? If so, they are to stop ALL collection activity for the first 30 days even if they DONT receive a validation letter from you. I wasn't aware of this but my attorney said they are required to wait out the 30 days. Send them the estoppel and a copy of the "Wollman" letter (it states a printout is not acceptable). Do you know if they have your sig. on file? If you don't think they do, I would keep after them. I'm sure they will make many more FDCPA violations. I don't think you will be required to pay off the lousy $60. in order to get your dream home. A friend of mine had a brand new repo (thanks to her ex forging her name), when she bought her house. She bought her loan down 2 points to bring it to 7.5% (bought in 11/00), but she still got a loan with it on there. She had to write a letter saying it wasn't hers.
I'm not sure what you are asking me, so pardon my ignorance. Here's the timeline of events thus far: 02/04/02: CA reports collection to all 3 CRAs. 02/04/02: I sent CA validation letter CRRR. 02/07/02: CA signed the CRR and now has my validation letter. 02/14/02: While checking my Experian file online, I note that CA is reporting the tradeline as "consumer disputes this information" so for now, they're playing by the rules. Green card arrives in my mail box. 2/15/02: CA sends me their version of "verification": a computer printout of some apparent account information which gives me no clue as to where it truly came from or who produced it. And to top it off, they once again demanded payment in the very same correspondence. Looks like they are going to help me build my case against them for me. 2/27/02: CA calls me at work demanding payment. 3/4/02: I received another letter demanding payment. I hope this helps clear up my situation.
Did you ever receive a notice from them saying "you have 30 days to dispute this debt blah blah blah"? Or did they just skip that part and go straight for the CR? The FDCPA and the FCRA are unclear on if placing it on your report and THEN sending a notice is against the law, however, if they sent the notice THEN placed it on their that is a violation of the FDCPA, and there is a staff opinion letter backing it up. (Its attempting to collect on it when in dispute). Now you may NOT be able to go after damages for them trying to collect on what they consider to validation, or any letters there after, but you will build a much stronger case by sending a copy of the Wollman letter, which says a print out is not accpetable. For $60 I'm surprised they even sent a printout LOL. One more question, have you,lived at your address for a long time? If so, they had no reason to place it on your report FIRST then ask questions later. If they can find your report, they can find you. Does any of this make sense?
Yes, I have received notices that stated "if you don't pay, we will report" or spmething to that effect. It was at this point that I turned to the original creditor and made payment. In reading the Wollman letter, I decided that sending the estopel/Wollman is my best approach.
UPDATE: On Friday, April 12, the original creditor cashed my check. The check was dated 8/01, it's been so long, I totally forgot about it. It looks like I might have the proof I need to make IC System back off. Here's the timeline of events thus far: 02/04/02: CA reports collection to all 3 CRAs. 02/04/02: I sent CA validation letter CRRR. 02/07/02: CA signed the CRR and now has my validation letter. 02/14/02: While checking my Experian file online, I note that CA is reporting the tradeline as "consumer disputes this information" so for now, they're playing by the rules. Green card arrives in my mail box. 2/15/02: CA sends me their version of "verification": a computer printout of some apparent account information which gives me no clue as to where it truly came from or who produced it. And to top it off, they once again demanded payment in the very same correspondence. Looks like they are going to help me build my case against them for me. 2/27/02: CA calls me at work demanding payment. 3/4/02: I received another letter demanding payment. 3/11/02: 2nd Validation letter sent. 4/12/02: Original creditor cashes check dated August xx, 2001.
